Short Summary

Comical pipes from Mr Shillitoe's collection at his home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

Description

M/S of Mr Shillitoe, with pipe in mouth, taking a seat at a table with another man at his home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire; numerous pipes are spread out on the table before them and hanging on the wall behind them. As the man looks through a book, Mr S shows him a pipe with the head of a man for the bowl, with a long hairy beard hanging beneath it. C/U of the pipe as commentator says it is a "genuine 50-year-old tree-root novelty from Germany".

We next see in C/U a carved wooden figure of a man with a very large beak-like nose; Mr S takes hold of the head and pulls it out; the head is attached to a pipe which is concealed inside the body. There is also a spare mouthpiece or cigarette holder held under the arm of the figure. From a display of pipes seen in M/S on the table Mr S picks up "a pipe cocking a subaltern snoot [sic] at the Duke of Wellington, who was not popular with his men because he tried to stop them smoking". In C/U we see the bowl is carved in the head of the Duke, with a smaller soldier's head behind who is thumbing his nose at him.

C/U of the Meerschaum pinup pipe; a lady with pompadour hairstyle and bloomers reclining next to a large flower which forms the bowl. C/U of the upside-down pipe; the normal-looking bowl is sealed over, turned upside-down we see the real bowl on the underside. C/U of a clay pipe showing four figures of a family and a dog along the stem. C/U of the Dick Whittington; a figure of Dick is sitting on the stem and leaning against a milestone (the bowl) reading 'Dick Whittington, the Lord Mayor of London, Born 1330'; it is said to have been carved from the real milestone.

C/U of Mr S handling a dual-purpose pipe and cigar holder from Holland; the curved stem attaches to a carved wooden log on which sits a carved rabbit in mountaineering gear - his knapsack forms the bowl. C/U of a pipe with a very large carved figure at the end of the stem, wearing a wig, with a huge upturned nose, in a squatting position. The top of his hat is the bowl.